Drone crashes caused by faulty batteries have prompted a Chinese supervision authority to propose new standards on the production of lithium-ion batteries specifically made for drones.
At a seminar in September, the Guangdong Testing Institute of Product Quality Supervision (GQI) proposed criteria for the storage of lithium-ion batteries in a high-temperature environment, saying that the discharge time should be no less than 1.5 hours while in storage at 60 degrees Celsius for 30 days.
Only two drone battery producers in China can currently meet that requirement.
Drone manufacturing in China has boomed, with 30 companies now focused solely on making the unmanned flying aircraft. Nearly 80% of those companies are based in the southern factory belt of Guangdong Province, where at a seminar held in September, new rules were outlined.
DJI is one of the world’s largest drone manufacturers and is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. It began in 2006 in a single small office in China and now has a workforce of more than 3,000, with offices around the globe.
The battery regulations are not the first to be introduced in the drone sector, with several coming in over recent years as the industry has taken off.
China is sensitive about drones. During September’s WWII commemoration parade, it forbade even the selling of toy drones during the period, and retailers were seen passing the contraband to shoppers in black bags under the counter.
In August, China announced a curb on exports of advanced drones and supercomputers in a bid to tighten control over technologies that were linked to national security, the China Ministry of Commerce said.
